Jovanka's Turlough-ry of Believability
by Blue Mistfall
Summary: The scientific experiment brings three children together. It would be nothing special if they weren't descendants of one rude and ginger man... and if they existed in each other's worlds.


**A/N: Mary-Anne Sara Jovanka belongs to Ace's Louisville Slugger (thank you!), while Kyon and Tally belong to me.**

* * *

As a rule, nothing is able to break the strict white and steel grey shades of science labs like this one, especially if it's about labs which contain operation tables or their relatives. But there should be an exception at least once.

The sheet over one of the tables moved, and the figure under it sat up, having broken the atmosphere of research and development. It revealed to be a boy of about eight or nine with short ginger hair - you cannot find items of such color in labs, if it's not about chemistry - green eyes, sharp nose and chin, high cheekbones and too clean skin. No freckles, no moles, not a spot, apart from a strange mark on his left shoulder - two triangles put into each other, but not completely.

He didn't remain alone for a long time. Some seconds later another sheet moved, and one more bright spot appeared. It was ginger as well, but this was the only common thing. The new "object" was a girl of approximately the same age with the first one, with full head of red wavy locks, dark brown eyes, auburn lashes and turned-up nose covered in freckles.

The duet was examining each other before its members revealed that their only clothing were those very sheets.

"Science freaks", the boy muttered, having wrapped the white fabric around himself. "They always want everything to be natural".

"Uh-huh", the girl nodded, blushing and repeating his motion.

"Kyon", the boy went on. "That's my name - Kyon".

"Mary-Anne. Mary-Anne Sara Jovanka".

Kyon frowned at her:

"Jovanka?.. Do you know Miss Tegan Jovanka?"

Mary-Anne's brows crawled up:

"She is my mother... Hey, what's this?" She pointed at the mark on Kyon's shoulder. "Misos triangle? Where did you get it?"

"At the same place with my father. On Trion", Kyon replied, reflectively touching the prominent pattern.

"Trion, Trion..." Mary-Anne mused. "How did you get here?"

"Don't remember. Guess it was some nasty pill..." Kyon slid onto the floor and turned around to get the full view of the lab. "And what about you?"

Mary-Anne shook her head, indicating that her case was the same, climbed off the table, and her attention was attracted by a pile of folders on the shelf nearby. Meanwhile Kyon tore the sheet off one more operation table and stood still, stunned:

"Tally! What the blazes are you doing here?!"

"Kyon!"

In a moment a small bundle of crumpled sheet and two-colored hair was attached to Kyon's legs, not willing to release them. This revealed to be a little girl of about four or five and with the most bizarre appearance. It was not enough that her eyes were of different colors – the right was blue, the left was green. Her hair was mostly ginger, but some locks were of dark crimson color, as if painted with wide brush (it was clearly seen especially over her ears), and her face was covered in freckles.

One more exclamation followed:

"Kyon… Turlough?!" This was given out by Mary-Anne, who was looking through the contents of the folders and found the photo of her "hard luck neighbour" with name under it.

"Yes, that's my name. If you fancy, Kyon Vislor Turlough… What? Have I grown one more head?"

"No, you still have two", Mary-Anne replied, and Kyon smirked. "My dad's name is Vislor Turlough".

"What the heck are you talking about?! It was ME called after my dad!"

For a moment or two Kyon and Mary-Anne were staring at each other. Then the stream of words broke the dam.

"He's MY dad!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

"MINE!"

"Stop it!"

The last was given out by the little girl clinging to Kyon.

"And who might you be?" Mary-Anne asked, having quickly calmed down. This feature of hers was inherited from her Mum – the ability of bursting out and relaxing in a mere moment.

"She's my little sister", Kyon announced, while the kid attempted to hide behind him. "Officially - Talimine Youngling Turlough, unofficially - Tally".

"So we are..." Mary-Anne paused, attempting to fully accept the new info, "...siblings?"

Kyon chuckled nervously:

"No. No-no, that's ridiculous! That's just like some Earth Indian movie, dammit! There should be another explanation... Hold on. Do you live with your Mum on Earth?"

"Yes. But we get messages from Dad, and he promised that some day I will fly to space with him", Mary-Anne nodded.

"And I lived on Trion with my parents, and Dad never sent any messages to Earth..." Kyon mused. "Why would he hide it? Oh yeah, it's highly unacceptable on Earth, their rubbish TV is three quarters based on arguments and divorces!.."

"Lived? You mean you don't live there now?" Mary-Anne squinted at Kyon's mark.

"Yeah, sad but true. Exiled to Earth, just like Dad used to be", Kyon admitted, scratching his neck. "I tell you: I've never heard that Dad sent any messages to Earth or your Mum in particular. He told me about her, and about Nyssa, and the Doctor too..."

"And what did he say about Mum?" Mary-Anne asked, her voice very small.

"That she was a good friend despite some disadvantages". Kyon put a reassuring hand on the older girl's shoulder and made up a lop-sided grin. "Fine, let's discuss our family ties later. I'm sure that there's a reasonable explanation. The main is why we are here. What did you read in those folders?"

"Nothing but basic info about us. I couldn't read more". Mary-Anne handed him the top folder. "You think you can understand this?"

Apart from the top papers which contained most obvious info about them three (photos, names and origin), there were weird drawings and figures inside. Kyon even felt dizzy. He couldn't stand the official-styled research and development, and being a part of it - even more.

The "being a part" role got extended pretty soon: the lab doors opened, and the three children found themselves chained to the operation tables before they could realize what was going on. This time the tables were fixed in almost vertical positions for the trio to face their kidnappers - a team of people in white robes guarded by four unfriendly-looking persons.

"Pretty convincing", one of the scientists noticed.

"It is". The tall man in glasses, perhaps the leader here, approached to Kyon and pressed on his left arm, just over the mark.

"Keep your sticky fingers off me!" the boy yelped, twitching in the rings of steel. That didn't keep the leader from examining the "scar" further. Thank goodness they didn't take those sheets away from us, Kyon thought, chewing on his bottom lip with frustration. He didn't let anybody touch his mark, but those "science freaks" always stuck their fingers into every light socket they could meet.

"It's only a sign burnt in the flesh", the leader assumed. "So, Alien Kids, where are your masking devices?"

"Masking devices?" Mary-Anne parroted, her brows arching asymmetrically - the left climbed higher than the right.

"We have none", Kyon replied. "What you see is what we have".

"Don't try to convince us in your truthfulness, Alien Kids". The only woman in the team nodded at Tally, whose two-colored eyes were as big as saucers (probably not with fear, but with the feeling of being separated from her brother). "This girl's device must be broken".

"Now listen to me", Kyon stated. "Tally has no masking device, and neither have I or Mary-Anne. My little sister was born this way. She's a bit unlucky. I can give you a logical explanation". Having taken silence as a positive answer, Kyon continued: "My race has some little specialties, including groove ones. The genes of our parents met in a peculiar way when creating Tally, and their grooves got mixed, but not till the end. This will be finished when my sis grows up a bit".

"And if you're telling the truth, why do you have monochromatic phenotype?" the leader asked.

"It usually happens to second-born children", Kyon explained. "I am the first-born child and Tally is next to me, this is why she is such a combo".

"A typical charade to distract us", the leader assumed, and Mary-Anne flushed with a new wave of rage.

* * *

The children were bunched up in the corner of a narrow room which contained nothing but a bare sleeping deck. The blankets given to them didn't provide much warmth, so the only remaining way at least not to catch a cold was this.

"What did they do to you?" Kyon asked just after Mary-Anne was pushed inside the chamber and the door was slammed shut.

"Don't even ask me!" Mary-Anne shot out, wrapping the remaining grey blanket around her and sitting down next to Turlough siblings. "Okay. Weighing, height measuring, scanning and all..."

"Found anything out?"

"They were stark raving mad".

"That means they found nothing", Kyon assumed, smirking. "Say, humans and Trions are genetically similar, eh? Otherwise you wouldn't have been here".

"Is there anything special about Trions? Mum never told me".

"I guess she didn't know. No wonder. Watch this". Kyon scratched on the narrow wound on the back of his hand until drops of blood began flowing outside. For some seconds they turned purple, but a couple of moments later returned to being red.

"Wow". Mary-Anne was eyeing the droplets of blood drying for a bit longer.

"See? That's an ability which can save a life". Kyon licked on his wound until the remains of blood were gone. "Some kind of natural healing essence which appears in case of injury. Very strong, very strong... but we Trions don't boast about it at every corner".

"Did they find out?"

"Obviously". Kyon made up a grimace. "They were fascinated".

Tally wrapped her arms around her brother's middle, sniffing with residual negative emotions from the utter analysis performed on her. Kyon combed lines in her hair with his fingers until she was quiet again.

"Scribbling away like mad", Kyon went on. "As if it could help find out the truth about us!.."

"Or find the way out", Mary-Anne caught up.

"I've tried to open these doors, but they're not moving. And bars... the distance between them is too narrow even for the smallest of us", Kyon informed. "So we have to wait for our fate".

"I hate waiting", Mary-Anne admitted.

* * *

As they didn't have much to do, Kyon and Mary-Anne talked, while Tally would listen to them, sometimes clinging to her big brother - mostly when stern steps were heard from the corridor. And this was curious: the kids had a lot of guesses about their coming together despite the obvious paradox of them both being here (though they couldn't prove it - they just knew it), some reasonable, some more fictional, some really dumb, but every time they started talking it all finished in one of the stories about the Doctor. Mary-Anne told the ones she had been told, while Kyon took some from his own experience. He considered himself lucky to have such adventures, but didn't tell it to anyone.

"But if the Doctor could change so many times and so strongly... why can't anything special happen to us?" Mary-Anne asked after having listened to one of Kyon's stories. "It's considered impossible".

"I know what you mean". No wonder! Mary-Anne's Mum had described the Doctor as a youthful man all in beige with dirty-blond hair and blue eyes, who would be kind and sympathetic with anybody. Kyon's Doctor was something else: darker, skinnier, chattier, crazier, with a bowtie instead of celery stick, but with an obvious heart - or hearts - of gold. "You know what the Doctor said? That if there was someone he would have felt". Kyon noticed, having pressed on the word "someone", and tapped on his temple. "Right here".

"Whatever do you mean - 'if there was someone'?" Mary-Anne wondered. "Mum told me that he had escaped from his folk in an old TARDIS..."

"Gospel truth. But I don't think you gotta know more".

Mary-Anne kept silent. She knew when to do it. No wonder, when you're half alien, you are to know when to keep things to yourself and you understand when someone else wants to do it.

* * *

This was No Good.

Actually it was Very Bad.

Vislor Turlough knew it for sure. Why? Because he was in the heart and soul of what was going on.

All the living beings sensible enough - fine, those who could think farther than everyday life and its sense - knew or supposed that every situation had a number of possible solutions, from two to infinity. It was clear that every decision could create a brand new world - or give just a little change - and that it blocked the rest of the variations, unless the situation went out of control.

This time it was something brave new - and threatening.

"Earthlings!" Turlough snarled, having located the place where three innocent souls were now. No wonder. A military base! Perhaps even top secret, like that... what was it called?.. UNIT, maybe... The man frowned. How was he supposed to get there?.. Another question that disturbed him was the acceptation. Two versions of reality collided, and he was the first victim.

There was reality where he had married Tegan Jovanka and where they had had a daughter named Mary-Anne. But there also was the world where he had married the Trion girl named Danateh Abnerveil, which had resulted in Kyon and Tally (poor girl, they had planned to call her Talimine Haell, but that official "Youngling" had banned the second name till her getting her normal groove instead of that mix!). Now Turlough knew about both worlds, and that was the first impossible thing. The second was the meeting of those three kids. And the third would be their survival - Turlough knew it for sure. If British public school was the worst place in the Universe, military bases would surely be the next worst one.

Wait a minute. Military bases. And I'm on board of a small spaceship, Turlough thought to himself, and his thin lips curled in a grin.

"I'll give you some sweet moments", he murmured.

* * *

"We have chosen three young aliens which seemed to be normal and healthy since the very beginning. Two of them showed the potential powers which could be used for further research, particularly developing the universal vaccination based on their blood type (see the results enclosed). The DNA patterns of all three are alike and similar to human ones, marking them as relatives, but the alien genes are still not found..."

The letter to the higher instance was left unfinished because of rumble heard from the outside.

"Huh… whaa?.." The three children locked in their cell had been sleeping – if this state could be called sleep, because it hadn't resurrected any life force. It had been more of heavy hanging between reality and dreaming that could be broken even by a careless door slam, no words about meteor rain.

Mary-Anne was the first to rub the "sleeping sand" – or, more exactly, the remains of tears that had appeared during her sleep (she simply liked the metaphor more because her Mum used to call it so) – from her eyes and crawl onto the deck side closer to the window to see what was going on.

"Kyon! Tally! Wake up, come here!" she called out, impatiently bouncing on the deck.

Having got out of Tally's grasp (those little girls, they always stick to protectors, no matter what planet they are from), Kyon slightly pushed Mary-Anne aside to see it all with his own eyes.

"What's there, big bro?" Having realized that even if there was space for her, the window still would be too high for her to reach, Tally crossed her arms and pouted. Kyon patted her on the shoulder:

"Cease that, Tally… No way, it's a ship from Trion!"

"Trion?" Mary-Anne's eyes grew to the size of especially huge walnuts. "Your home planet?! Wait, how do you know?"

"Trust me, I know, there are little hints like this", Kyon pointed at his Misos triangle mark. "It would be too long to explain, and I grew up observing spaceships…"

As if to approve his words, a screeching sound followed from the corridor, and a flow of unrecognizable words followed. They were not in any recognizable Earth language, and not in Trionese… actually that was plain gobbledygook. But the voice was familiar, and Tally was the first to catch it, judging by the expression of her different-colored eyes.

Kyon quickly covered her mouth with his palm, then gestured the girls to keep silent and crept to the door. After some minutes – those were minutes and not hours according to the speed of three hearts beating – the door was open, and a man in military uniform appeared in the doorway. The children had already got used to such sight – those people were all the same to them. But this time there was something else in addition.

"Teru em kone kaiyen", the man said, addressing it to Kyon. And, to Mary-Anne's surprise, the ginger kid understood it perfectly well and replied in the same fashion:

"Etrangi zop freyby kers weper".

The man grinned and pulled his cap to the side, revealing bright ginger hair underneath – just like Kyon's and Mary-Anne's. A second later all four were running for their lives, fleeing from this damned place.

Only when the building was left behind, when bare feet of the kids were in scratches and blood droplets (both red and purple) from the impact with the uneven road, when the door of a small hidden capsule closed behind them, it was over.

"We're in safety now", Vislor Turlough gasped – even though he had an experience of an awful lot of running, this was a bit of an exercise for him. What to say about the children! Kyon, Mary-Anne and Tally were panting, as if there was not enough air for them, and the blankets covering them were torn and dirty now, but they didn't care.

"Where?.." Mary-Anne was the first to get her ability of speaking back.

"Don't worry, they will not see us here. It's a rescue pod from my spaceship. I've turned the cameras off along the way, and here I've got a perception filter, though it's not too necessary", Turlough assumed, glancing to the outside. The "fallen" spaceship had attracted each and every scientist and military man from the base, and that meant oblivion to everything else.

"What's a perception filter, Daddy?" Tally asked.

"They don't notice us, that's all... I see you got on well. All three of you. Mary-Anne, Kyon, Tally. I was afraid you'd murder each other in a cold-blooded way, but you inherited not only my features".

"So you're my dad?" Mary-Anne asked, her voice very small.

"Whoever could I be?"

"But... how did you find us? How did it happen that you have not only me? How did..."

Turlough put his forefinger on the older girl's lips to prevent further questioning:

"Let's start from the beginning. One of the researches on this base was about the fields of probability. In other words, the successful result was to increase the possibility of certain events taking place. But eventually it only brought you three together".

"Why us three?" Kyon wondered.

"I guess someone has been sneaking around", Turlough replied with a half-frown, half-grin - he was proud that Kyon wasn't indifferent to the world changing, but such behaviour definitely was no good. Just like his own when he had been younger. "Or you simply were unlucky... Anyway, it made two incompatible actions take place at the same time - I mean your meeting. And things should be brought back as soon as possible, otherwise the hole in the fields of probability is going to swallow all of them, and not only on Earth. But first..."

Turlough dug into a small locker attached to the capsule's wall and produced three bars of hard bluish violet substance.

"What is it?" Mary-Anne asked, smelling her bar and finding no familiar features in its aroma.

"Emergency food", Turlough explained. "Not luxurious, but fine when you need to restore life force, and I see you haven't been fed well... Oh, please, Mary-Anne, eat it, it's not poisonous!"

The older girl shrugged and bit a corner off her bar. Its structure appeared to be similar to that of bubbly chocolate, but its taste was more of spiced hardened bread "without baking", as it appeared to her. It was surprising, but it quickly restored all the strength lost during that feverish running and being locked in the cell.

"I don't think you had much of Trion experience", Kyon giggled, watching Mary-Anne cautiously chewing her portion.

"Stop that pranking, you'd better told me what you said to each other", Mary-Anne snapped.

"Our code words in Trionese", Turlough explained. "'Teru em kone kaiyen' means 'you were named after kaiyen', and Kyon replied 'etrangi zop freyby kers weper', which means 'orange grass smelling like sweet spice'. Kaan ter fero, Mary-Anne Sara Jovanka?"

Even though the older girl didn't know a word of Trionese, the intonation of the question spoke better than the words themselves for her. Typical question. "Got that?.." Yes, she did.

For a minute or two the children were quiet, cuddled by their father's side and accepting the situation, while the eaten bars were accomplishing their task. Kyon was the first to break the silence:

"What's the plan, Dad?"

"We are to pay a visit to the probability breakers", Turlough replied.

* * *

All the cameras along the way appeared to be broken - or, more exactly, melted. Long live lasers, Kyon thought to himself.

"Da... Daddy..." It was the first time when Mary-Anne dared to call Turlough this way. As if previously she couldn't accept him being her father (and why "as if"? She couldn't - for a while).

"Huh?"

"Why don't we have those... perception filters to hide?" The older girl pulled the collar of her mini military uniform with elements of spacesuit (now she, Kyon and Tally were all dressed this way) found in the capsule.

"The Doctor hadn't shown me how to create a smaller one. The technology used on my ship's elements works only in certain measures and with fullmetal items… Don't worry, spaceships for scientists work like bones for dogs".

Kyon suppressed a giggle. Sure thing, he thought.

"But still, how did you find us?" Mary-Anne wondered, having recalled that she hadn't received a reply.

"With a bit of DNA scanning", Turlough replied. "You all contain a bit of me, so that was easy. Nowadays DNA scanning is a trifle".

"Not for everyone", Kyon mentioned.

"That's the point".

The way finished in the huge chamber full of all kinds of devices, all together creating a full complex (Mary-Anne's first thought was about the very first computer, the pictures of which she had seen in books).

"How do you know it's here, Daddy?" Tally mumbled. She didn't feel comfortable when it was about machinery.

"I feel sick", Turlough replied. "I'm the center of this insanity, and this gives me an advantage".

Mary-Anne felt her face flushing – for some reason she considered herself guilty. Family ties, dammit… Turlough walked along the row of panels occupied with buttons, levers, little screens, sensor pads, lights and all the rest of their relatives, and the kids followed him – partly because of elementary wish to be safe, partly because of their curiosity.

"Just like in the retrospective TARDIS", Kyon murmured.

"You've been there?" Mary-Anne marveled – secretly she wanted to see the Time and Relative Dimensions in Space with her own eyes, no tales were enough for her, she would better learn it all by herself. Kyon nodded:

"Yeah, a couple of times. But I have to stay on Earth most of the time…"

"Silence, Kyon, don't make my head crack in two", Turlough interfered, studying the numbers on the closest scale.

"Usually mothers say so", Mary-Anne whispered.

After this they watched their father entering settings into the closest machinery block in utter silence. It was even creepy, so Mary-Anne and Kyon found each other's hands before they realized it, and no words about Tally – she was clinging to her big brother from the start.

Finally Turlough pushed what should've been input bar and hummed in delight:

"Ready. After rummaging in the TARDIS it's quite a trifle. It only has to charge, I've divided the features of two realities apart. And we should stay here for the process not to be spoilt".

"Daddy, what will happen to you?" Tally asked with such tone as if she was about to burst out weeping.

"Reverse curse, Tally. There will be two of me. One for you and Kyon, the other for Mary-Anne. Everybody will be satisfied".

"Apart from those who wanted to mess things up", Kyon sneered.

The machine started humming – this was somehow similar to "the sound of Universe", "the best sound in the world" or whatever epithets were used to describe it?..

The sound of alarm broke the quite peaceful operation going on, but Turlough did not react - or he did, but not in a classical "jump-and-run" way.

"Whatever takes place, keep close to me", he ordered. "All three of you. We are to stay here if we want to restore things as they were". As soon as there was a sound of steps in the corridor, there was a new order, this time not too practical (or secretly practical): "Mary-Anne, Kyon, hold hands".

"What?" both shot out. No, this was not unpleasant or humiliating, simply not waited for.

"Hold hands, I said!" Turlough snapped. "And don't let go until I say so".

The older children obeyed, knowing there will be no sense in asking before it's time. Mary-Anne only doubtfully glanced at Kyon, and the boy nodded, approving that it was usual condition of things.

The air in the room glittered, but so faintly that only Turlough noticed it. In fact, this worked only for him. A fine sign it was. The reality was restoring itself as it used to be, and the only question was blocking the device for good not to mess time and space up. And this required extracting the warping element, whatever it was. Like in the TARDIS. Right here Turlough's experience of blocking Time and Relative Dimension in Space would come in handy – what to say, silver lining was there to be.

Now it was about letting the process finish.

"Vislor Turlough, Clansman of Trion", Turlough began in a cheeky tone as soon as the exit was blocked by the scientists' team. This habit of his would never change despite the years. "Whatever brought you here?"

The clicking of guns from the corridors indicated that everything was prepared for the worst. Kyon suddenly felt that his right hand squeezing Mary-Anne's became wet with sweat, as well as hers, and Tally was almost hanging on his left arm.

"Did I mention that you've messed the fields of probability up?" Turlough continued.

"A purely scientific experiment", the top scientist replied, apparently not bothered by the (purpose) disrespect of the intruder. "We managed to get the information from the children, and we are ready to defend our planet from the inevitable invasion".

"What kind of information? Bet they did not tell you anything".

Again two quick nods behind Turlough's back – neither Mary-Anne nor Kyon had told them anything suspicious. Tally would not talk to them at all.

"The older girl has atypical genetic mutations, similar to those of the boy", the leader noticed. "In all, their DNA patterns mark them as relatives, but the older girl has much closer relationship to human kind than those two".

"So what? My people, the Trions, have no business to do with you".

The air began gleaming, as if tiny comets were crossing it. Possible negative action was to be delayed for some minutes.

"Yes, they have. The older girl is the approval", the lead scientist continued.

"If you think Mary-Anne's some kind of a fictional superhuman made up from the cell mix, you've watched too much TV", Turlough sneered. "And even if I gave you the explanation – the real and true one – you would have considered me insane… It includes time machine, the multicentennial man with two hearts and many history interferences… NOW!"

And several things happened at once.

At first there was a shot. One of the guards must have had an itchy finger, or he got tired with waiting and this yelp made him act, but the trigger was pulled. At the same moment the grip of two children's hands was loosened, the air glowed like a glass dome - or more like it does in movies when in slow-motion - and the bullet stopped in mid-air, as if the time itself stopped.

And the sounds were gone as well. Or have the kids got deaf?

Anyway, now they could not hold hands even if they wanted, because the air between them was glittering, like water waves, but not giving a chance to get through. No, this was not a wall. They have become more of a mirage for each other, but they still felt Turlough's touch on their shoulders - left hand on Mary-Anne's, right on Kyon's.

* * *

"Finished".

Kyon was gone. So was Tally. And the lab, and the crazy scientists, and the base itself. Only three things stayed as they had been: Mary-Anne, Turlough and the spaceship nearby. Perhaps the rescue pod was still hidden with the perception filter... though you can hide anything in such wood. Nothing except nature worked here, and no one was there to spoil everything.

"Mary-Anne, finally you're here… What? Oh, come on, cease that…"

It simply was too much for Mary-Anne. Yes, she could be a superhuman prototype (rubbish, of course she wasn't, highly filtrated minds had thought her to be it) or a mixture of two races (now that was true), but first of all she was a girl. The same was with Turlough. He could be an invader or an alien, but first of all he was himself. Tricky, freaky, cheeky him.

"Stop it, you mummy's little girl…" he was muttering, only partly realizing that Mary-Anne's red curls partly closed his vision as she buried her face in his shoulder. "You're so typical for your planet".

"Mummy told me you often said it to her", the girl replied in a muffled way.

"I did". Turlough pressed a small kiss on Mary-Anne's temple and stood up. "Let's go, Mary-Anne".

"Where?"

"I promised I would come back and take me with you. Don't you remember my messages? First things first. Just tell me where your home is".

Mary-Anne chewed on her bottom lip, confused.

"Daddy, what happened to Kyon and Tally?"

"In your world they never existed".

"But I remember them".

"Me too. The memory will stay right here", Turlough poked Mary-Anne's forehead, "forever, and, trust me, sometimes it's much more important that official data".

"And there's no me in their world", Mary-Anne murmured.

"But this doesn't mean you cannot meet again. It's not impossible, it's a bit improbable and quite believable. Guess who said it".

* * *

"Bash you, Tally. I know that I also used to be part octopus, but you…" Kyon rolled his eyes upon his sister not willing to set him free, though now it was nothing to fear. Now they three – himself, Tally and Turlough – were in the middle of some deserted road, and the spaceship stayed as well.

"I guess the base exists in one more reality, and not two, but three of them crashed together", Turlough mused.

"No matter. The main is that everything's all right, isn't it?"

"It is, Kyon, it is. Now for the next actions…"

"I'm not going to beg you!" Kyon interfered. "I know I am to stay on Earth for more time, and I'm not going to break the rules!"

"Since when are you so obedient?" Turlough asked in a mock-serious tone.

"I'm not", Kyon smirked. "I just know I'll have a nice chance to run away. Run, run and run, and sometimes hop for my life!"

"You cheater". Turlough pressed on the boy's head with his palm. "Fine, I'll help you get to your current place, and then I'll take Tally home. But first of all promise one thing".

"Which?"

"Don't tell the Doctor".

"I won't".

No chance, no way. Secretly – though so obviously – Kyon had an intention to check the theory of believability once again. And if he met the Doctor and – accidentally, I'd say! – mention this… maybe there would be a chance just to see each other again. Because anything exists if remembered and believed, no matter what the official data says… including ginger siblings.


End file.
